Dr. Bede SsensaloDr. Bede SsensaloDepartment of Black Studies, California State University, Long Beach
Dr. Bede Ssensalo is Professor, Department of Black Studies, at California State University Long Beach where he has been a member of the faculty since 1977. He teaches courses in African and African American Literature and Swahili, the only African course taught on campus. Dr. Ssensalo received his BA in English at Makerere University, Uganda, East Africa (his birthplace) in 1970. He holds a Masters degree in African studies from UCLA (1972) where he also obtained his Doctorate in Comparative Literature (1978).
Dr. Ssensalo’s current research centers on International Black Children’s Literature Africa, the U.S, and the Caribbean. Dr. Ssensalo has authored several scholarly articles including The Poets of South Africa and The Poets of Harlem Rennaisance: A comparative study (1985); “The Black Pseudo-Autobiographical Novel: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Houseboy: A Case Study” in the journal African Literature Today (1984); “The Autobiographical Nature of the Poetry of Dennis Brutus,” in Ufahamu (1977) and “Andrew Salkey’s, Joey Tyson, a review.”
Most recently, Dr. Ssensalo has also been published in Children’s Literature Review Vol. 62, 2000.
His Language competencies span Luganda, his mother tongue, English, Swahili, Latin and French. Dr. Ssensalo is on the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army in the City of Compton. He serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Center for Advancement of Allied Health at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, and is former President and current member of the Board of Directors of the Lula Washington Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Theatre.
His many awards and honors include election to membership in Phi Beta Delta, the honor society for international scholars in 1994 and election by his colleagues to the Academic Senate at California State University, Long Beach in 2004.